A judge’s ruling has removed an initiative to ban commercial marijuana growing in Calaveras County from the ballot.
There’s a backup plan that could still keep pot farms out of the county.
Measure B was an initiative that had more than 5,000 signatures to qualify for a vote in May.
But the ruling by the court was that language in the measure was misleading and violated the Election Code and so was struck down.
Calaveras County Planning Director Peter Mauer says the county will hold hearings on an Environmental Impact Report on marijuana cultivation next month which could be the beginning of a ban by the Board of Supervisors.
“We will be using that to adopt whatever the ordinance is, but the current direction is from the board is that we would be banning cultivation and other commercial cannabis activities in the county,' says Mauer.
He also says such a ban might not come until July and, even then, marijuana farmers would have 90 days before bringing their operations to a halt.
A thousand applicants paid $5,000 each in fees to Calaveras to grow commercial pot this year…fees that will be refunded if a ban goes into effect.
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